Charles River Associates (CRA) Expands Capabilities in Intellectual Property

Ben Sheppard Joins As New Vice President In Intellectual Property Practice In Los Angeles

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Charles River Associates (NASDAQ: CRAI), a worldwide leader in providing economic, financial, and management consulting services, today announced that Ben Sheppard has joined the firm as a vice president in the Intellectual Property Practice based in Los Angeles. Mr. Sheppard is a Certified Public Accountant and a Certified Valuation Analyst, and specializes in litigation consulting and expert testimony, forensic investigations, and valuation assignments with a particular focus on the entertainment industry.

“Ben’s experience expands the services we offer to clients facing challenges involving intellectual property and financial issues related to the entertainment industry. His more than 20 years of experience includes expert testifying roles as well as accounting positions with leading entertainment studios.”

“It is a pleasure to welcome Ben Sheppard to CRA and our California team,” said CRA's President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Maleh. “Ben’s experience expands the services we offer to clients facing challenges involving intellectual property and financial issues related to the entertainment industry. His more than 20 years of experience includes expert testifying roles as well as accounting positions with leading entertainment studios.”

Mr. Sheppard’s litigation consulting experience includes entertainment and media industry accounting, lost profits and economic damages, valuation opinions, breach of contract, copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation, and partnership accounting. He has advised on matters that include: supervising and preparing, on behalf of a major entertainment studio, business interruption insurance claims related to the events of 9/11; analyzing, for an insurance and asset management leader, the performance of more than 100 studio and independent motion pictures vis-à-vis recoupment against $1 billion worth of insurance-backed production loans; and performing, on behalf of an insurance and financial services provider, risk management due diligence analyses on two $1-billion motion picture asset resecuritization facilities for two leading entertainment studios. In addition, Mr. Sheppard has provided expert testimony in over 20 matters and has served as a court appointed independent expert involving a multi-billion dollar video game dispute.

Mr. Sheppard joins CRA from Alix Partners where he was a director in the Entertainment Practice. Prior to that, he was the accounting director for Warner Home Video and held auditing roles at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, The Walt Disney Company, and Deloitte & Touche. Mr. Sheppard holds an MBA degree in Accounting and a BBA degree in Management Information Systems, both from the University of Houston.

About CRA’s Intellectual Property Practice

CRA's Intellectual Property (IP) Practice specializes in financial, economic, and strategic issues related to patents, trade secrets, copyrights, trademarks, and all other types of intellectual property. Key areas of focus are litigation, valuation, transactions and business strategy. By combining real world IP transaction and strategy experience with financial and economics expertise, our team is uniquely qualified to provide credible expert testimony on economic damages and valuation issues in high-stakes IP disputes.

About Charles River Associates (CRA)

Charles River Associates® is a global consulting firm specializing in litigation, regulatory, and financial consulting, and management consulting. CRA advises clients on economic and financial matters pertaining to litigation and regulatory proceedings, and guides corporations through critical business strategy and performance-related issues. Since 1965, clients have engaged CRA for its unique combination of functional expertise and industry knowledge, and for its objective solutions to complex problems. Headquartered in Boston, CRA has offices throughout the world. Detailed information about Charles River Associates, a registered trade name of CRA International, Inc., is available at http://www.crai.com.